We should make sure teenagers are getting the right support and try to prevent exposure to addictive substances. At the same time we should be skeptical of ane

We should make sure teenagers are getting the right support and try to prevent exposure to addictive substances. At the same time we should be skeptical of anecdotes like the ones in the article. > But it was his demeanor that scared her most. Cade Beauparlant’s anxiety and mood swings worsened, his outbursts so sudden and so explosive that his mother said she came to fear him. I really think that might for the most part simply be due to this thing called puberty. > “We kind of lost four years of Cade to this addiction,” Kristin Beauparlant said. Now that he has cut back, “He just seems like a different kid. You can’t help but say there’s a correlation.” Yes, a correlation maybe, but who is to say of what nature. When I was a teenager I also had a pretty rough time dealing with my family and in particular my overprotective mum. So did many of my mates to varying degrees. Nicotine addiction certainly doesn't help, but at that age people are easily "addicted" to many things. I believe video game addiction was more common than tobacco in my peer group (, my point being that it might not matter too much whether that thing is vaping or some other activity that's addictive and, important, frowned upon by parents, unlike for instance sports). Also a time to engage in generally stupid and dangerous behavior. Nobody likes to get their favorite thing/toy/or freedom to go out get taken away. In puberty teenagers start to realize that they can actually try to stand up to their parents. Parents are scared when their precious child doesn't follow the rules, or speaks up, which ends up in a spiral of back and forth that sometimes escalates to the point where parents "don't recognize their kids anymore". Then typically after a few years shit calms down again with stabilized hormones, everyone having pushed and explored their boundaries, and the prospect of only a short amount of time left under the parents' direct control before leaving for college.